Random photo of the day: early on in our journey, the River Gambia Expedition , we had traveled on local transport for 23 bone-juddering hours from Kedougou, Senegal, over the rockiest of roads to the village of Horé Dimma, to pay homage to the source of the River Gambia – the true beginning of a journey which would take us, by road and river, over 1100km’s through the Fouta Djallon Highlands, into Senegal, and then on to The Republic of The Gambia, to the Atlantic Ocean.

Florio had just finished photographing one of the village imam’s – Horé Dimma is a sprawling place with more than one mosque – when we noticed his wife sitting nearby, quietly watching us, in her pristine wrap. And, there, next to her, is who we believe to be her granddaughter who, in complete contrast, looked as if she had quite likely been running around with her friends in the surrounding dusty hills of the Fouta Djallon.

March 26, 2013 – Today’s shout out goes to NUUN, UK – ‘You’re Always Active, Your Water Should Be Too’

‘Nuun is leading the way in portable hydration with three drink options to keep you refreshed all day, everyday. All three are ideal to help keep you hydrated and to make the most of the water you drink’ – Nuun

BIG thanks to Sarah, Ella and all at Nuun for the hydration tablets and water bottles, for the River Gambia Expedition. They supplied us with three tasty flovours: tri-berry (my favourite), lemon & lime and lime tea, which helped to keep us hydrated throughout our journey – whether we’re trekking in the Fouta Djallon Highlands of Guinea or canoeing down the River Gambia in Senegal and The Gambia.

A relatively short day on the River Gambia today, as we wanted to visit another gold mine, in Senegal. This stretch of the river is dotted with artisanal gold mines – which draw thousands of migrant workers from all over West Africa: Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Mali and, including Senegal itself. All of them hoping to make their fortune. Whole families live in and around the mines. All the mines we visited were understandably dusty but this one in particular had an extremely fine, pink-hued, dust which got absolutely everywhere. Even our tents, situated by the river – over 2 miles away from the mine itself – were covered in a fine film of the pale pink talc-like dust. But, at least we could pack up our tents and leave the next day. Many of those people whose lives revolve around the gold mines are inhaling toxic fumes from the mercury – used to separate the gold from the rock dust. The mercury that isn’t inhaled, settles into environment – i.e. the pink dust that coats everything and everybody, at this mine.

We met the Senegalese version of a Tolleh Kaafo (‘silly person’). Most villages in The Gambia will have such a group, or person in this case, and their purpose is to lighten up situations – laughing and joking around, when things get too serious. This guy was a real character, who seemed to have everything but an attayah teapot in his pockets!

So many of your made this expedition possible – with your participation in ‘An Exchange’ and the Kickstarter campaign – in exchange for donations we offered Jason Floiro’s limited edition fine photography art prints, taken whilst on the River Gambia Expedition . For that, we were immensely humbled by your support and unprecedented generosity.

Before we first sent out our fundraising emails we tried to think of a unique way of saying thank you to everyone who chipped in. The above is what we came up with. And, along the way, we had fun doing this…so many people we met on the journey, who participated when we explained, loved the idea of it – and/or loved the camera! Either way, it worked out really well.

On our travels through the gold mines of Senegal, out of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who travel from all over West Africa to the region, we bumped into this guy from The Gambia – our team mate, Ebou’s, home country. Here he is, taking us to meet his fellow Gambians, who had migrated to the area in the hope of making their fortune.